Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus in Florida

While we were in Florida, I made a shocking discovery.  Chris is better at reading Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus than me.

Jayce had a little bed set up beside our bed, and a small selection of books.  This one made the list almost every night.

Chris curled up beside him and they read away.  His pigeon voice is pretty funny.

I tried to sneak up on them, kind of, and hid on the other side of the bed.

But Jayce stopped Chris, and told him, "Dad, tell Mom, cheeeeeeeese!"

But then they went back to reading and laughing.

The pigeon got a spanking for throwing a tantrum, as instructed by Jayce.

And I instructed them to read it a second time while I fiddled with my camera settings.

I just might leave this story to Chris from now on though.  He's such a pro.

 

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Pompano Joe's

On Sunday after church, we headed to lunch by the beautiful ocean view at Pompano Joe's. It was the perfect excuse to bring my camera.

We tried to take pictures with the kids. Hannah could not be bribed with Angry Birds as easily as Jayce could, but we did our best.

Great company, great food, great view.

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Florida: The Beach

Our family takes a trip to Florida every summer.  Chris and I have done this for over 10 years now.  It started while we were dating and continued after we were married.  We even managed a trip down once while we were visiting from Scotland.  We have been thrilled that once we started a family of our own, that we would bring our children to our favorite "beach places" and on these adventures as well.  (We also started dating shortly after a spring break trip to Florida in college, but that is another story.)

We knew that this summer would be different, with Hannah being born at the start of June.  We didn't think that there would be much point in making such a long drive, when one of us would always have to be inside with her, since she was an infant, couldn't use sunscreen yet, and even in the shade it would be too hot outside for her.  But in October Chris was going to be speaking in Texas, and since it was right before spring break there was just enough time for us make it to Florida then.  So we went.

We spent the week in Destin, as always, and it was fabulous.  The weather was ridiculously ideal.  Sunny every day other than our arrival and departure days.  The humidity was low and the temperature was perfect, high 70s to mid 80s.  This was a thrill considering our trip last year, where the sun never graced us with it's presence.  (We had a good time then anyway, but it is a long and expensive trip to make just to ride bikes and go to the movies!)

Jayce has been talking about going to the beach to build sandcastles since the winter, so he loved it.  He was a little nervous about the ocean at first but could have played in the sand forever.  He built sandcastles and sand volcanos.  He buried his legs.  He grabbed handfuls of sand, made sand "snowballs" and threw them at the seagulls, chasing them away.  The people sitting nearby applauded him and thanked him.

Jayce, Hannah and I went to Florida with Andy and Patsy while Chris was doing lectures in Texas.  As soon as Chris' plane landed in Kentucky, he drove down to join us.

We only managed 1 day with all 4 of us at the beach.  It was all that I could hope for.

It was also the only day that I took pictures at the beach.

My new camera arrived the day before we left for vacation.  (In the late afternoon too-I was really stressed that we were going to leave before it arrived!)

Hannah and I camped out under the umbrella while the boys played.  She looked around for a while and eventually dozed off.  I just soaked it all in.  I pulled my camera out for 5 minutes the whole time that we were there, and my only photos are what I could manage with just one hand (which was tough b/c I had my heavy lens on), from under the umbrella, and with as little movement as possible as to not disturb my sleeping babe.

(sneeze!)

It was great.  I was happy to have a few photos to remember it by, but glad to tuck the camera safely away so that nothing would distract me from the sun and sand.

 

 

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Four Months of Fun

(This post is slightly late, but that is what happens when you leave for 2 weeks on the 4 month birthday. But the pictures and sentiments are from that time.)

Sweet girl, I can't believe we've had you for 4 months already. Where has the time gone?

For the first few months you didn't change a lot, but now you add a new trick every week.

You rolled for the first time at 14 weeks. At the beginning of the week I'd put you on your belly, and you would bury your head into the blanket and kind of smash your face into it. That weekend, I put you on your belly and you arched your back so that you were almost straight up. I commented that if you kept up at that pace that you'd be rolling in no time, and then you rolled over. There was no hint of this happening, so I wasn't ready with a camera or phone to get evidence.

It was such a surprise, that your dad, who was watching the UL vs UK football game at the time, came running in to see the action. You repeated your performance for him and later for Grandma and Chelsea on Skype. Big girl. This is way earlier than your brother.

At 15 weeks, you do this pilates-esq reaching thing. Legs straight out and up about 45 degrees, arms straight out in front of you, reaching for your toes. You eventually roll to your side to keep reaching.

At 16 weeks you sometimes have tiny bubbles on your lips and have started to chew your fingers. You aren't drooling, but I think teething is ahead of us. You also had your first sick doctor's appointment, for your first cold, but luckily we avoided your first round of antibiotics for now.

At 18 weeks you rolled from your back to your belly. Now I'm wondering how long it will be until you are rolling across the floor from one side to the other.

Your 4 month well visit went perfectly. Actually, they didn't even ask us most of the questions, the nurse would just say things like, "Yes, she definitely has control of her torso...she's obviously verbal...yes, she's engaged when you talk to her...etc."

You are 13 lb, 12 oz, in the 55th percentile for weight.

You are 25 1/2 inches long, in the 79th percentile for height.

Your huge smiles make my day, every day, and I cannot kiss your chubby cheeks enough. You're so sweet. We sing, "She's a sweet thing..." to you all the time. Especially your dad.

Actually, I usually sing Crazy Girl to you, because you are always flinging yourself around in my arms, trying to lay down, trying to look the other way, etc. I'll say, "Whoa, crazy girl!" and then go into the chorus, "Crazy girl, don't you know that I love you?" Plus it is easy to substitute in other words ending in y, like, "...sleepy girl, come here let me hold you..." I don't know what it is about sweet babies that makes you turn everything into a song for them? Someday you'll understand.

Have I told you lately? I love you like crazy, girl.

I'm linking to Miscellaneous Monday here.

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Happiness

Remember that Will Smith movie, The Pursuit of Happiness, where he says, "This part of my life...this part right here...this is called happiness."

This is happiness for me.

I probably turned to Chris a half a dozen times while we were at the beach on this day to say, "I'm so happy right now."

A sleepy baby snuggled in my lap, a warm salty breeze, white powdery sand, my two favorite boys playing together, and a beautiful ocean view.

This part of my life is called happiness.

This part of Chris' life would be called sand. Unaffectionately. But since I write the blog, we'll go with my caption instead.

Anyone else have a husband with no love for the beach?

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3 Year Old Jayce-isms

I made these pants for Jayce a few months ago and just got the chance to get some pictures of him in them.  I thought they would make a fun backdrop for some recent Jayce-isms.

3 years old is a fun age.  It is particularly interesting because Jayce has such a good grasp of language, so the vocabulary mix ups are pretty sweet.

Backporchigans instead of Backyardigans.

He asks us to come sit behind him on the couch, instead of beside him.

When asking for the menu at a restaurant recently, he asked for the food map.

He doesn't really understand when to use the word either, and will often throw it in a sentence randomly.  "I want a goldfish and juice box either."

He has a pretty good grasp of pronouns, but he struggles with she, as in, he never uses it.  He always says things like, "Mom, her is crying.  Her needs a drink."

He will periodically declare, "We are having a great time!" in the middle of playing.  It's so sweet.

After playing for a little while, he'll inform me,

"Mom, I'm out of energy.  I need to get some water.  Oh, I was so thirsty.  Here you go Mom! " and then share his drink with me.

I asked Chris if he told Jayce about energy and he didn't, so I guess that came from school.  Now starts the long list of things that I won't really know where he learned about, or exactly what he learned.

He also has picked up some sayings that aren't bad, but that we don't really want him to say.  Chris and I say, daggonit more regularly than we realized, until Jayce started saying, "Oh, dong it! "

It's not bad, it just doesn't sound right.

Also, last week we passed something exciting in the car, and Jayce declared "Oh gosh!! " while Chris and I cringed.  (As I'm typing this I feel so ridiculous because I know "Oh gosh" isn't a horrible thing to say, but it just sounded so wrong coming out with that sweet little high pitched voice.)  Chris and I immediately started declaring, "Oh, wow!  Holy Moly! " and various other corney but excited sayings, trying to encourage him to pick up one of those instead.

We made muffins last week and my little cook helped me with each stage of the task.  I informed him at one point that he was a good helper. He said,

"I am a great helper." Then he paused and said, "I'm great at mixing and dancing."

I guess he just needed to sum up his talents for me.

A few weeks ago we had our baby sitter Brenda and her boyfriend over for dinner one evening.  Jayce had never met the boyfriend (named Jason) before.  Jayce struggled with the concept of "Jason" for some reason.

Is Jason a Jayce? No, his name is Jason.

Is Jason Jayce's daddy? No, he's Brenda's friend.

Is Jason Brenda's daddy? No, he's her friend.

Is Jason a little boy? No, he's one of those big kids from dad's work.

Oh.  I not want Jason to come to my house.  I'm shy.

Jayce then proceeded to have an absolute blast when Jason came over, which we knew would happen.  But I did think it was funny that he declared himself shy, something we never do.

The other afternoon I told Jayce that I was going to have quiet time that day too, and asked him to tell me the rules.

For the record, the "rules" are: lay down in bed, be quiet, listen for the timer, and snuggle your bears.

However, the "rules" that he told me were:

1.) You can go potty.

2.) You can get a tissue.

3.) You can blow your nose.

4.) Not get up and play.  That's not a very good idea, to get up and play basketball.

It's worth noting that he told them to me exactly like this.  As in, he said, "Number one, you can... Number two, you can..."  Pretty funny.

It's also worth noting that #1-3 on Jayce's list could actually be called "the ways to stall on quiet time that won't get you in trouble."  These were the things that he decided to share with me, from one person having quiet time to another.  The little rascal.

 

 

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